Natalia 3/6 Yoga change your life?
Yoga can Change your life? Believe you or not, yoga effects on your life. Good news, changes it in positive way:)Yama/niyama, asana, pranayama practices changes you energy, thoughts, body and it’s means world around you. When you do practice you change your anergy from negative to positive, it’s effects on your body and behavior. After good asana and meditation practice you can feel positive anergy in your body, calmness of your mid. So if you feel angry, worry, feel pain in your back simply start yoga class. Yoga can also help to you stop your bad hobbits like smoking, drinking and junk food. If you can’t control dosages of it, yoga can help. Just need to find right technique and regular practice. Like kundalini using to treat for drugs addicted people, Yoga Nidra was used for Americans solders after war. We are difficult system and it’s not only about physical part. Body, mind, conscious unconscious, energy, chakras and auras. Yoga touches this all parts, the only thing that can destroyed its fantavticizm. Namaste!
Jastine (6/6)
Dedicating my final post to trainer, Jessica, Alexis and my batch mates. To Jessica, for being so patient and so willing to impart your knowledge to us. This means a lot to me, and I am sure, to us, so thank you on behalf of all of us. To Alexis, for all the beautiful pictures that you have taken of us, and for being so super helpful each time we approach you. It seems as though that we can approach you for anything and everything and you just know what to do each and every time! To Janice, your drive and passion for yoga have impacted all of us. You are always so on fire, and it pushes me to want to do better too. To ash, for always French braiding my hair (hahahaha) and for being so sweet and caring all the time. To Reena, it means a lot to me each time you encourage me. You are so humble and you have so much to give to each and every one of us. To Krithika, for always laughing alongside me. I hope you will forgive me for asking you to ‘stay there’ (in a weird position) after realising that you could not come into a bind. To Kexin, for being my coffee break buddy haha but no, for always trying to advise me. You are very sweet. To Xuan, for helping me improve in my pincha and for being super encouraging as well. I will never understand how you bother writing so much in an Instagram post but you do you. To Natalia, you are so funny. I love your humour. You have a really cute smile and I thank you for your generous compliments. To Carolin, you are so strong and there is just so much to learn from you. Honestly, you speak really well and all you need now is a little more confidence! Thank you everyone for being a part of my yogi journey :’) Jastine
Jastine (5/6)
Reflecting on my past performance and recalling comments and feedback as I prepare my sequence for my final community class on a nice Sunday afternoon. I have been told by Jessica and a couple of batch mates that my problem lies in delivery. My sequence may flow and I may have my details, but still it does not make a good class if I do not deliver my instructions well. I totally understand where they are coming from. I guess I should really place emphasis on the words that are important for the students to carry out the poses. And my tone matters too. I need to catch their attention and make them listen to me. I need to make an impact as a teacher. Last class tomorrow to do my best and last 5 days to give it my all before graduation. All the best to my batch mates! Jastine
A Non-Responsive Response – Kex (4/6)
Fear is an irrational but unavoidable phenomenon. I know it’s irrational, because it’s doesn’t have any clairvoyant abilities. It doesn’t change the future, but it changes the present. Our response to fear is everything. I thought of breaking down fear so that I can get to the root of the problem. Perhaps it’s my need for control over the outcome? Maybe I just need to be kind to myself and accept myself for what I am, where I am. Or is it the idea of failing that made me fear? I don’t want to be judged. I don’t want to be a bad teacher. My analytical mind couldn’t stop working. And all of a sudden, I decided to just take a step back, and chill out. I watched as my mind tried to make sense of every emotion. It was trying to convince my logical mind to not fear. That I was wrong to give in. But fear is an instinctive response, and I was fighting it with the logical mind. So I watched as my mind tried to fix itself. And I chose not to participate. It was difficult, but if I can just try a little everyday, perhaps I can finally be free one day. Fear will always arise, but our response, or in this case non-response, is everything.
Jan – (4) On Balance
My first Community Class was centred on the idea of balance – easily preached, yet really difficult to practise, and carries a multitude of meanings to different people. Definition 1 – to be in a position where you stand without falling to either side. (A “simple” definition.) Maybe when we’re on two feet, we’re not exactly falling, but are we leaning? When we were learning about the human body last week, it became apparent that everyone’s body is imbalanced. We’re all crooked somewhere! So what do we do? It all begins with awareness, after which we can figure out how to fix ourselves. We were all learning how to stand, sit and walk again. (Thing is, we always look to others to fix us. Ain’t gonna work, bruh. Cos once that person’s gone, we’re back to being crooked again.) Note to self: Got to fix myself, consciously, every minute of every day. Definition 2 – to give several things appropriate amounts of importance, time, or money, so that a situation is successful. Limitless wants, limited resources. There’s only so much of you. So, what is really needed? Again, we need to be cognisant first before we can decide on the appropriate distribution of personal resources. This is the quote I shared after class that day – “Somehow, we’ll find the balance between whom we wish to be, and whom we need to be. But for now, we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.” Note to self: Don’t obsess. Beware of tunnel vision. Reflect on what’s truly important. Definition 3 – a state equilibrium In yoga, there’s an ongoing trade off between concentrating on the pose and letting go of the mind and letting your body do the work. As with anything in life. The world around us moves, whether we like it or not, so its impossible for us to be completely still. Sometimes, when the mind insists on stillness, the less stillness we get. I suppose there has to be some fluidity when we try to find our centre admist all this fluctuation. Note to self: Jangan tension. Next time you’re practising yoga and think you’re balanced, try closing your eyes! Next Comm Class – handstands. You ready? Am I??? Here’s to finding our centre (with good humour and patience, not frustration)! Love, Jan @saltfrosted
Shane (6/6)
They say that the practice of inversions is a mental game, steel your mind, hasten your resolve and you will see it happen. I feel that yoga, as with other sports (is yoga a sport?) involves a lot of psychology, it’s a mental game as much as it is physical, here’s what I’ve come to realise; Mental resilience is key, and a lot of times the difference between successfully fighting to keep a pose or falling out of it hinges on simply believing if you can make it or not. You go where you set your sights on – don’t look where you don’t want to go, look in a direction to deepen a twist, or drop your gaze to deepen that back bend, fixate on an object to be as stable as it is, through your gaze around to have your body flail to the ground.. Balance – Yoga is about balance, not just physical balance, but a balance between effort and ease, comfort and discomfort, pain or sensation. Being strong, it is easy for me to muscle my way into poses, but more often than not the most stability is found when I allow the body to find its own neutrality, and allowing itself to settle into a discomfort that is the most comfortable. Detachment – Linked to the first part a bout yoga being a mind game. To progress, it is sometimes important to let go of specific ambitions, drives, or any focus on one particular asana, and instead move onto a holistic practice of yoga. And then come back to that asana and realise how much improvements you have achieved unintentionally. I will also end off on this – inversions require total concentration on balance, and in the practice of it, total detachment from any mental or emotional baggage is achieved, you gotta love inversions for this. Cheers, Xuan
Shane (5/6)
Wrapping up our first week of community classes, we are now just a week shy of graduation. Time flies, and revelling in the present is our only futile means of grasping at it. Here’s a post in celebration of the completion of my first yoga class ever (: It wasn’t perfect, but I was certainly proud of it, and of myself for trying. At the end of the day, all I feel is contentment that the class went way better than I expected, relief from completing it, and deep gratitude for having a very encouraging and supportive bunch of YTT mates, on top of an already awesome instructor. To those who filled in for my class despite your fatigue, thank you as well! Through this first class, I find myself really enjoying this. Yoga to me is an art, sequencing is as much a science as much as it is a creative expression, and sharing it is a joy – and teaching a yoga class is a blissful marriage of all the above. In my little pisces mind, yoga is simply physical poetry with a big potential of directly improving people’s lives. Quoting Will smith, ” on the other side of your maximum fear are all the best things in life.” The pre-class anxieties were real and intense, but seeing the post-class happy faces of friends who enjoyed the class or those whose practice you’ve helped (1st side crows for example!) certainly makes all the effort and stress well worth it. I feel like I certainly made the right choice taking up this YTT, and this was exactly the sort of enrichment I was looking for when I embarked on my sabbatical. Thank you Yoga Mandala, and I am truly looking forward to see where this journey leads. Cheers, Xuan
Shane (4/6)
Santosha – “Contentment. Being enough. Embracing the moment for what it is. Being grateful” Contentment has been a central theme I had set for myself at the beginning of the year, and of all the sutras this was one that really spoke to me. In a world inundated with an incessant stimulus of visions, expectations and images of what we could or should be, we are in danger of subjecting ourselves to toxic comparisons and setting unattainable standards for ourselves. Instead of being, we are always wanting, and instead of contentment we are plagued with insecurities and feelings of inadequacy – nobody dares to settle for being themselves anymore. To constantly worry about being inadequate or to worry about being too much, is in essence to be fearful of being one’s self. If you can’t be yourself then who are you really? In yoga, as with life, we will always struggle, and we will always fall short, nobody’s perfect – maybe your shoulders are tight and your pinchas are bent, maybe your arms are too short or joints too stiff that some poses will never turn out the way you want them to – and that is perfectly okay. What we’ve got to remind ourselves is that, it is our imperfections which make us beautiful, it is what makes us unique. We are what we are right now, unique individuals, each a work in progress, and that’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Cheers Xuan
Shane (3/6)
“The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.” Beyond chasing asanas and the joys of achieving them, I’m realising that yoga is about much more than that. It is about taming and training the mind as much as it is does the body; about focus and detachment, balance, and about simply being present through the process – all its little struggles, celebrations and epiphanies. It is almost an attitude, a way of life, and I’m realising through this YTT that there’s a lot I need to learn. Yoga is a personal journey, as is life – ever a process and ever in progress, and living in a hectic city i feel sometimes we all need to take a step back and internalise that that is ok. It is no competition, no rush to get anywhere. Don’t lose yourself in the pursuit of an end, but find yourself within your pursuit of progress. Live in the present for what it’s worth and carry hope for tomorrow. Cheers Xuan
Shane (2/6)
“Something will grow from all you are going through, and it will be you” So here I am halfway through the journey of my YTT with the yoga mandala. 2019 has been a year or risky decisions, big changes, but more importantly one of healing and self discovery. In looking forward to classes everyday, it’s hard not to feel that 25 days is really rather short. Now comes the time when 25 days feels like too short a time, and here we begin our bittersweet countdown to the end. Here’s cheers to a fabulous instructor Jessica and team (Alexis), great coursemates, shared joy, camaraderie and a lifetime of learning and lasting friendships. While my body feels broken (everyydayy) the heart is full. Cheers Xuan
